Presentations: October 2009 Archives

Everyone knows Apple's Steve Jobs can kill when it comes to a presentation with overhead PowerPoint-ish slides (you know he doesn't use PowerPoint). Now there's a book about how to do it the Steve Jobs (and other successful people) way.

Carmine Gallo has analyzed the Steve Jobs magic, which you can sample in this article, or get the full Steve of in Gallo's new book.

Yes, even with pancreatic cancer, a transplanted liver and a closet with nothing but black mock turtlenecks, Jobs does it better than you. Learn from the master.

If you're too lazy to click over, here are some quick Steve Jobs presentation tips:

• Use the rule of "threes." Jobs usually divides his presentations into three sections. And if he mentions attributes or features of a given product, this is also often done in threes.
• Don't use bullet points. Again: Don't use bullet points. Replace bullet points with visuals. Pictures talk, words walk.
• "Create a 'holy smokes' moment." In the article and book above, the example cited is when Jobs pulled a MacBook Air from a manila envelope to show how gosh-darned thin it was.
• Again, fewer words on screen, more pictures. This is key.
• Plan, collaborate and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Jobs doesn't create his presentations in a vacuum. He has help. Then he runs it through for hours at a time over a period of weeks. He's not pulling this stuff out from you-know-where.

Hey, I just used a bunch of bullet points and should have instead done it with a visual:

See ... he didn't used to wear black mock turtlenecks every damn day.